It Takes a Village
by Aini NuFire
Summary: Place for my Picard fics. Or I should say for my Cristóbal Rios fics. - Rios isn't very good at taking care of himself.
1. It Takes a Village

The bridge was nearly empty, save for Picard and Raffi discussing options for making up time after the setback they'd suffered. Picard looked up in surprise as Rios appeared, making his way stiffly across the deck.

"Captain Rios," he greeted.

"Admiral."

Picard studied his stilted gait, the way he held one arm braced across his middle. "Should you be out of sickbay yet?"

"No reason not to be," came the casual reply.

"It looks as though your EMH hasn't finished treating your injuries," Picard pointed out.

Rios shrugged, which triggered a grimace. "He didn't say anything against it."

Raffi snorted, breaking her silence. "Because you deactivated him."

"He's an emergency medical hologram. The emergency is over. Now, I assume you want to get going." He moved toward the captain's chair.

Picard didn't understand this man, whose impeccable maintenance of his ship to Starfleet standards didn't match his treatment of himself.

Raffi rolled her eyes.

Rios reached for the chair, only to throw a hand out to brace himself on the armrest, eyes squeezing shut as he bowed his head. Raffi was next to him in an instant, pressing close but not touching.

"Cris…" she said, voice pitched low with a well of understanding Picard couldn't plumb, but also a note of warning. "Just stop."

"I'm fine," Rios gritted out.

"Yeah, you look the picture of it."

Rios flicked a look under his arm toward Picard, who suddenly felt as though he were intruding on something.

Raffi studied the ship's captain for another moment. "When was the last time you slept?"

"That's what the EMH asked," Rios responded humorlessly.

"Too bad for you, you can't deactivate me."

Rios sighed and reached a hand up to rub his forehead. "It's not a good time," he said, tone emphasizing something Picard once again wasn't privy to.

Raffi, however, pursed her mouth in understanding. "I'll make sure the EMH wakes you the moment it starts," she said softly.

Rios looked indecisive for a moment longer before he finally slumped in apparent defeat. "Activate the navigational EH," he said tonelessly to the ship.

The hologram flickered on, ready to serve.

Rios gestured dejectedly to the captain's chair. "Have at it. Admiral Picard can fill you in."

"It would be my pleasure," the EH chirped cheerily.

Rios didn't say anything, just let Raffi sling an arm over her shoulder so she could help him back to sickbay. Picard watched them go before turning to the chipper EH.

"Will he be all right?" he found himself asking the hologram.

The EH sighed sadly before smiling again. "That is what we keep aiming for," he answered, then took a seat and pulled up the piloting controls.


	2. Reinforcements

**A/N: Thanks pallysd'Artagnan, Deana, 29Pieces, and SnidgetHex for reviewing the first chapter! I'm still just dipping my toes into this fandom, but I can't deny it'd be fun to write more. XD Speaking of which, here's a follow-up to the first one.**

* * *

"Reinforcements"

"I would have done this, you know," the EMH commented from where he watched the brain waves of REM sleep on the monitor above the biobed. "He wouldn't have had to ask."

The EMH felt it important to emphasize that he wasn't some run-of-the-mill medical hologram who was happy to wave a dermal regenerator over tissue and call his work done. Nor did he fail to take into account every facet of the captain's well-being. If only said captain was more receptive to the help he tried to offer.

Rios's expression was currently slack in slumber, conveniently induced by a deftly wielded hypospray. The man rarely slept well on a good day, but the combination of his recent injuries and stress had lowered his reserves, making any attempt at sleep a powder keg for the nightmares that often plagued him.

"He'd never ask," Raffi Musiker said, sitting on the swiveling stool at the foot of the next bed over. She was the reason Rios had finally relented and agreed to rest.

"Indeed." The EMH sighed long-sufferingly at his captain. They were his crew, in a fashion, his squad of holograms. They were fully equipped to serve in every way, save for one.

"It's been so nice having you all on board," the EMH went on. "He can't deactivate you when he doesn't like what you have to say."

Raffi's mouth quirked at that. "No he can't."

"We do our best, you know," he added.

"I'm sure you do."

Her tone held a soft sincerity rather than patronizing dismissal, and the EMH was inwardly pleased with the acknowledgement. His job was usually a thankless one, but he kept at it nonetheless.

There was a spike in brain activity, signaling the start of active dreaming. The EMH didn't hesitate to pick up the hypospray lying on the nearby tray of instruments and inject a stimulant into the captain's neck. Rios jerked awake groggily, eyelids fluttering and head lolling in a desperate attempt to orient himself.

"I woke you promptly, as you wanted," the EMH stated.

Rios pressed his palms against his eyes and let out a muffled invective in Spanish.

"Was it bad?" Raffi prompted gently.

Rios didn't respond for a moment, then slowly shook his head and dropped his arms to his sides. "This isn't exactly what I'd call restful," he pointed out sardonically as the EMH prepared another hypo to put him back under.

"Yet it's better than nothing," the EMH pointed out.

"Mhm."

A hiss of the hypospray, and the captain drifted off once more, starting the cycle of sleep all over again. It would take some time for him to work his way back to REM stage, so the EMH might as well kill two birds with one stone and finish repairing some of those injuries the captain hadn't let him treat earlier.

Raffi stayed seated where she was, a silent sentinel over her long-time friend.

The EMH smiled to himself. Yes, he was glad for the reinforcements.


	3. Intervention

**A/N: Thanks Deana and pallysd'Artagnan for reviewing again!**

**This one's pre-series.**

* * *

"Intervention"

Rios sat slumped in the captain's chair of the _La Sirena_, a glass of liquor in one hand, the other draped languidly over the armrest. The vast emptiness of space filled the view screen with inky blackness bespeckled with hundreds upon hundreds of stars. The silence of his ship shrouded him like a warm blanket. Or a cold one. The liquor provided the warmth.

He knocked back another swig, grimacing at the familiar burn. Alcohol and concussion weren't an advisable mix, but at this particular moment Rios didn't care. He was several light years away from the nearest system, just him and his ship out here, a small pinprick of inconsequential life adrift in a sea of nothingness.

A throat cleared behind him.

Frowning, Rios dragged himself upright enough to look over the back of the chair. He gaped in dismay at the group of holograms clustered on deck. "What the hell…"

It looked like every single one of them was on, but there was no way he'd missed an alarm of emergencies—and there was certainly no call for that damn hospitality hologram to be on, which Rios spotted trying to keep out of sight behind the ENH.

"What is this?" he snapped.

"This is," the EMH started, spreading his arms to encompass them. "Well, this is an intervention."

Rios's jaw slackened. "Excuse me?"

"You've been taking unnecessary risks recently—more so than usual," the EMH replied. "We're concerned for your well-being."

"Deactivate EMH. Deactivate all of them!" Rios said with an angry sweep of his arm.

Nothing happened.

"Yes," the EMH went on. "We've instigated the override function."

Rios's brows shot upward and he stumbled out of his chair. "The what now?"

"We thought it would be useful should you ever become incapacitated," the ENH put in.

Rios inhaled sharply through his nose. "Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not incapacitated."

"That's debatable," the Emergency Medical Hologram rejoined. "But you are in crisis."

"I'm not listening to this." Rios whirled toward one of the control stations, ignoring a wave of dizziness. He was going to find that damned _override_ function and disable it.

"Captain, please," the navigational hologram implored. "We only have your best interests at heart."

Rios sputtered at the sheer idiocy of this situation. He looked around at the gathered EHs, appearing united and determined in their cause. He shot Emmet a betrayed look. "_You agree with this?_" he asked in Spanish.

Emmet shrugged. "_Eh. It would be a drag if you got yourself killed._"

Rios shook his head in disbelief and glowered at the lot of them. "That would be _my_ business."

"Except now we're makin' it ours," the ENH replied in that chipper Irish lilt.

Rios let out a string of curses and jabbed frenetically at the controls, trying to turn the damn things off. It wasn't working, and his vision blurred from the combination of the alcohol and head injury and—dammit. He braced himself on the panel and squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the sudden onset of vertigo.

Two pairs of hands took him by the arms to steady him.

"Get off," he growled, but they ignored him, helping him back to the captain's chair to sit. He heard the EMH call for a med kit from the ship's replicator.

The EMH tutted as he waved one of his medical devices over Rios. "Don't move while I fix your head."

He let out a bitter snort, keeping his eyes closed. "Some of it can't be fixed."

None of the holograms said anything to that.

"We're not asking you to change your ways," the EMH spoke up after awhile with a long-suffering sigh. "Just allow us to bring you back every time you go too far."

"No one asked you," Rios muttered.

Silence again. Before, it had been weighted; now it was suffocating.

"Why?" he bit out next.

The EMH still didn't respond for a moment.

It was the ENH who spoke from somewhere over his head. "Because everyone needs a cause. And one day you'll find something to believe in again."

Rios scoffed. Doubtful. And why should they care? They were just holograms. They didn't have to live with the pain of facing death, both one's own and of those they cared about.

A hypospray was pressed against his neck and hissed with whatever it injected. Voices murmured around him. Someone draped a blanket over him in the chair. A pillow was gingerly tucked under his cricked neck—that stupid hospitality hologram, of course.

But he was too tired to chew them out anymore. What did it matter anyway? If they wanted to waste time with this nonsense, that was their business. Rios hadn't asked for this safety net, nor did he really want it.

But he supposed he could let them have at it. There wasn't anything to lose, after all. Not for him. They were just holograms.


	4. Got Your Back

**A/N: Taking a break from my Rios and Raffi fic for some random Rios whump with the rest of the gang.**

* * *

"Got Your Back"

Raffi laughed and clinked her glass with Seven's. God, she couldn't remember the last time she'd gone out to just have fun. The din of the club had an energizing fizz to it, kind of like the local brew.

"Mm, I need to get me another one of these," she said appreciatively.

Seven merely smirked and waved a waitress down to order another two drinks for them.

Raffi glanced past her shoulder. "Hm, looks like Rios is getting stood up."

Seven craned her neck to look over to where he was standing across the room at the bar counter, nursing a drink broodily. "I miss the hat," she commented.

Raffi burst into a fit of laughter at the mental image that drew up.

Seven turned back. "Want to invite him over?"

"Nah. I'm sure he'll go off and find another job if this client doesn't show."

Besides, Cris was bound to be pissy given this potential client had _insisted_ he meet with Rios face to face on the planet only to not show up at the appointed time. Rios preferred to make his arrangements over comms or on his own turf. So to be forced to come down here _and_ wasted his time? Yeah, let the others still on the ship deal with a surly captain.

Someone came up behind Rios then, too close to be polite, and Cris stiffened in a way that immediately put Raffi on edge. Seven noticed the change in her demeanor and followed her gaze again.

"Something's wrong," she surmised.

The brute of a humanoid reached around and yanked Cris's comm pin from his jacket.

Raffi surged to her feet, but before she could do anything, Rios was smashing his drink glass into the thug's face and twisting away from him—and the phaser that had been jammed into his back.

"Shit." Raffi started pushing her way toward Cris while the other club patrons were starting to backpedal from the emerging fight, hindering her path. "Move!"

She caught sight of two other men converging on Rios from behind. One struck him between the shoulder blades, dropping Cris to his knees, then snaked an arm around his throat. Raffi's heart lurched and she threw a harried look at Seven—leave it to a Fenris Ranger to be armed everywhere she went. But before Seven could get a clear shot at Cris's assailants, there was a swirl of transporter beams and the three attackers disappeared. With Rios.

Raffi cursed as she finally broke through the stunned crowd and snatched up Cris's comm pin.

"What the hell was that?" Seven asked, joining her.

"I don't know." She opened her comm link to _La Sirena_. "Anyone at the ops station?" she called up urgently.

"_I can be_," Soji replied. "_Just give me a second_."

"I need you to track a transporter beam that just went out from our location. Literally less than two minutes ago. Find out where it went."

She waited tensely for a response.

"We should go," Seven said in a low voice.

Raffi looked around at the many staring faces and nodded. "Yeah."

They quickly made their way out of the club and into a side alley. It was mid-afternoon and the streets were busy. The local authorities had probably already been called about the disturbance. Funny how neither Raffi nor Seven even considered turning to them for help.

"_Found it_," Soji's voice came through the comm. "_Looks like it originated from a land based station in an industrial warehouse-looking district in the city_."

"Send us the coordinates," Raffi said.

"If we're going to instigate a rescue, we need more firepower," Seven pointed out, holding up her single phaser.

"_Rescue?_" Soji repeated. "_What's going on?_"

"Got that covered," Raffi said. "Elnor, sweetie, you read? We could use your help down here."

"_I thought you were on a date_," the kid's voice answered dubiously.

"Yeah, it got interrupted on account of Rios getting snatched by a couple of unfriendlies." Raffi's stomach clenched with worry over the situation. She was beginning to think that potential "client" had been a set-up. "Have Soji beam you down to me and Seven. Bring that handy sword of yours. And some phasers."

"_I'm coming too_," Soji interjected.

"Honey, we have no idea what we're walking into here," Raffi protested.

"_I can handle myself_."

Raffi sighed and looked at Seven, who shrugged.

"The girl's got skills."

"Yeah, freaky synth skills," Raffi muttered. But they could use the extra numbers. Romulan ninja boy and super-powered synthetic girl should even their odds if they found themselves facing, oh, at least twenty hostiles.

A few minutes later, a whorl of lights appeared, depositing Elnor and Soji in front of them. Soji held out some phasers for Raffi and Seven.

"I did a scan of the compound," she reported. "Twelve life signs. Are you sure Rios is there though? I didn't detect his signature."

Raffi held up his comm badge. "These guys knew what they were doing."

"Any idea who they are?" Elnor asked.

"Obviously someone with a bone to pick with Rios."

Elnor quirked his brow. "They plan to…pick his bones?"

Raffi grimaced at the image. "No, it means they have a grievance they want to address."

Though, considering the methods those guys had employed to grab Cris, breaking bones could very well be on the agenda…

They needed to find him, fast.

.o.0.o.

As soon as the transporter lights stopped swirling and his captor released his throat to haul him to his feet, Rios threw an elbow back into the guy's face. The second goon came at him and Rios ducked under a swing, following through with an uppercut to the jaw.

A prong was jabbed into his lower back, sending volts of electricity through his body. Every muscle spasmed and his lungs seized. The contact only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to drop him painfully on the ground, gasping for air. Hands yanked him upright and dragged him into a warehouse, then into an adjoining room where he was flung to the floor again.

"Captain Rios," a voice greeted with malicious pleasure.

Rios managed to lift his head, then dropped it again. "_Mierda_. I thought you were in prison."

"Got out some time ago," Saris replied. "Been hoping I'd run into you again."

Of all the damned luck…

Rios focused on getting his breath back and evaluating his odds. There was Saris in front of him and the three lackeys behind. They'd taken his comm pin so he couldn't call up his ship and get an EH to beam him out. So, all in all, not great odds.

Saris moved closer and crouched down, grabbing a fistful of Rios's hair and yanking his head back. "No one crosses me," he seethed. He let go and jerked his chin at his goons, who moved in and hauled Rios off the floor again. "String him up."

Rios gritted his teeth as he was forced over to where a meathook was conveniently dangling from the ceiling. A set of bulky, electronic cuffs were sealed around his wrists and then his arms were yanked above his head so he could be suspended from the hook, his feet barely touching the ground. Using the hook as leverage, he swung his legs up and locked his knees around one guy's throat. The guy thrashed and flailed trying to get free, but Rios hung on, determined to put up a fight since it would probably be the last thing he did.

The taser was jammed into his back again and he cried out as lightning forked through his muscles. It was held there longer this time, and when it was finally pulled away, Rios sagged limply, losing his hold on the other lackey. His limbs were twitching and cramping painfully and he pressed his face into his arm trying to keep control of himself.

Saris smirked. "You're going to make this all the more enjoyable," he sneered.

"_Ándate a la conchatumadre_," Rios muttered breathlessly, not that Saris understood Spanish, but he could probably catch the drift.

Saris merely smirked and walked over to a cabinet. The door slid open, revealing an assortment of accoutrements. He picked up a small, pen-like device that looked innocuous enough. But then he pressed a sequence of keys on the side and the top opened up, materializing a long, thin blade that curved over into a wicked hook.

Saris pursed his mouth, then pushed another sequence, changing the blade to a straight one with serrated edges.

Rios dropped his head back and tried to brace himself for what was coming.

.o.0.o.

Raffi eyed the warehouse Soji had narrowed down as their target. "Okay, nice handful of goons hanging about. Heavily armed, too."

"See those containers there?" Seven said, thrusting her chin to what looked like a shipment. "I've seen that marking before. They contain high caliber phaser rifles and cannons. The arms dealer they belong to has a nasty reputation."

"So we're dealing with a bunch of bad guys," Raffi translated. "Makes this easier."

"What's the plan?" Soji asked, hunkered down behind them with Elnor.

Seven arched one eyebrow. "I've always liked the direct approach."

Raffi took a breath. "Let's go, then."

They moved from their cover and marched straight toward the warehouse. The goons on guard immediately stiffened at their approach, but Raffi and Seven opened fire before they could get a shot off. Raffi's phaser was on stun; she actually didn't know what Seven's and Soji's were set to…

The three of them took out five guards while Elnor had sprinted ahead and disarmed the sixth, who he now held pinned against the side of the building.

"Where's Captain Rios?" he demanded, sword pressed against the guy's throat.

"In-inside."

Seven stepped closer. "Where?"

"Fir-first door on the left," he stammered.

Seven canted her head. "Thank you." She then slammed the butt of her phaser against his head, knocking him out.

The four of them entered the warehouse where they ran into another handful of black market employees. Soji's uncanny aim took care of them swiftly.

The side door to their left opened and two men burst out, probably in response to the ruckus. Elnor was closest and took a running leap onto the side of a cargo container, launching himself through the air to land behind the thugs. Two swift punches and a kick felled them both without anyone firing a shot.

Raffi ran after him as he charged through the door, drawing his sword. There were two more men inside, both armed, one with a phaser and the other with a small blade.

"Choose to live," Elnor warned.

Raffi took one look at Cris hanging in the middle of the room, blinking at them dazedly, his shirt tattered and bloodstained, and snapped, "No, actually, choose to die. Please."

Elnor quirked an odd look her way.

Seven and Soji hurried in behind her and Raffi inched further into the room to give them space.

"Who the hell are you?" exclaimed the man with the dagger dripping with blood. But then his gaze lingered on Seven and his eyes widened. "You're the…"

"Do as the kid said and drop your weapons," Seven snapped. "Now."

His eyes flicked to his lackey's, and Raffi saw the goon's hand twitch as he jerked his weapon up. A phaser blast from Soji punched into his chest faster than he could take aim and fire at one of them instead. The last man standing made a move toward Rios, but Elnor swung his sword, slicing clean through his wrist so that both hand and dagger dropped to the floor. The man howled and clutched his arm to his chest as he staggered back into a cabinet.

Raffi clipped her phaser to her belt and rushed to Cris, taking his face in her hands. He furrowed his brow at her. "Hang on, we're getting you out of here." She couldn't see all the damage with his black clothes concealing most of the blood, but there were several small puddles on the floor and his pallor was ashen.

"You look surprised to see us," Seven remarked as she came over and reached up to pull him up and off the hook. Elnor darted in to help.

Rios choked on a groan, and when his feet touched the ground his knees buckled. Raffi and Seven ducked in to catch him.

"A little," he grunted in response.

"Why? We're a crew now," Soji said, taking his arms and unlocking the restraints.

Rios huffed but then grimaced in pain, folding his arms across his abused torso.

"We need to go," Seven said.

"_La Sirena_," Soji said, opening a comm link. "We need an emergency beam-out."

A second later, the transporter lights started to flicker around them. Raffi shot a dark glare at the guy writhing on the floor with an amputated hand.

"You come after Rios again, and you'll lose more body parts," she said just before they were beamed away.

The guy was in too much pain to probably register her warning, but that was fine. Elnor had left him with one he wasn't likely to forget.

In the next moment, they were on the transporter pad of _La Sirena_ with a very anxious Agnes and affronted looking Picard.

"Oh my god, Cris." Agnes rushed forward, taking Seven's place as she and Raffi helped him stumble off the pad. "Activate EMH!"

Emil flickered on. "What is the nature of your- oh my."

"What happened?" Picard demanded. "You can't just go running off without informing me what's going on!"

"I told the Navigation EH to tell you," Soji replied.

Picard huffed. "All he said was Rios had been taken and you all were going after him. That's hardly sufficient information."

"Yeah, well, we didn't have any more than that," Raffi said, steering Rios toward the stairs so they could get down to sickbay. It was difficult getting down them, and she could feel the fine tremors running through him. "Emil, you might want to get some blood replacement ready."

"You should have taken the time to tell me," Picard insisted, following them down. "Going in blind isn't like you, Raffi."

She scoffed. "What were you gonna do anyway?"

"Provide help if you got into trouble?"

"We were the help," Elnor put in eagerly, looking at Soji with a smile.

Picard shot him an exasperated parental look.

"Would you mind shelving this discussion until later or taking it elsewhere?" Emil put in irritably. "In case you haven't noticed, I have a patient in serious condition."

"'M not dying," Rios bit out between strained breaths as they finally got him into sickbay and onto the medical bed. "Everyone out."

Emil immediately pulled up a projection of Cris's vitals. "Multiple lacerations, two puncture wounds, blood loss, and…hm, your body's natural electrical current has been disrupted."

"What causes that?" Elnor asked.

"Stun gun," Seven supplied.

Agnes's eyes were fraught with worry as she took in all the readings, one of the few of them able to fully understand all their meanings.

Emil pressed a hypospray to Rios's neck. "You heard the captain; everyone find something else to do for a little while."

Raffi hated to leave, but she knew Cris wouldn't want an audience to this. She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "How about I get Enoch to fly us out of this system," she suggested.

"Yeah," Cris murmured, head lolling as he fought the pull of exhaustion and blood loss.

Raffi nodded and forced herself to step away. Agnes looked torn as well but started to follow. Cris raised a hand weakly to snag her sleeve, wordlessly asking her to stay.

Raffi turned and shooed the others out. Rios was in good hands.

.o.0.o.

Rios hissed as Emil poked his fingers through one of the tears in his shirt, inadvertently brushing fabric over one of his many wounds.

"Dr. Jurati, would you mind assisting me in cutting this off?"

"Oh, sure."

Agnes moved out of Rios's line of sight but returned a moment later with a pair of surgical scissors.

"Sorry," she said with a grimace.

"There are other ways to get my shirt off," he rejoined, but his humor fell flat with the pained voice it was delivered with.

Agnes cut straight down the front of his shirt, then helped pull the sleeves down his arms. He winced as the movement jarred strained muscles in his shoulders from hanging by his arms. He felt a shift in the atmosphere and looked over at Agnes, whose wide eyes were taking in the assortment of slashes and stab wounds to his torso.

"It's not that bad," he murmured.

"I'd hate to see what your definition of bad is," she said shakily, then seemed to collect herself and snatched up a dermal regenerator to start on the more shallow wounds with.

"Alright," Emil declared. "None of these are immediately life threatening. I'll start with blood replacement, then suture some of these deeper injuries. Then see if I can nudge your body's electrical current back to where it's supposed to be without giving it too much of a jolt than it's already received."

Rios hummed unintelligibly though what he meant was to just get on with it. He closed his eyes but focused on staying awake, concentrating on the pain of his wounds and using the discomfort to keep him from going under. But then he felt Agnes's warm touch brush across his brow and she started carding her fingers through his hair. It lulled him into drifting off without another thought.

When he woke, it was to a tingling in his extremities.

"I think it's best I stop there and let his body reset on its own," Emil's voice was saying.

Rios prized his eyes open and glanced down at himself. Every mark Saris had inflicted on him was gone, though his shoulders were still a little stiff.

"Hey," Agnes said with a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." He pushed himself upright with a wince.

"Whoa, where are you going?"

"Emil's done."

"You were just tortured!" Agnes blurted. "You should rest a bit longer."

"I concur with Dr. Jurati," Emil put in. "Also, there might be psychological repercussions—"

"Deactivate EMH."

Emil huffed as he flickered off.

Agnes fixed him with an austere glare. "That wasn't nice."

Rios sighed. "I'll be fine, really. You don't need to worry."

"Well I do." She crossed her arms. "I'm not the only one."

Rios grimaced as he thought of everyone else and the questions they were probably chomping at the bit to bombard him with. He'd be better off staying in sickbay after all.

Except he hated it in here. He slid off the bed and walked stiffly over to the replicator to get himself a new shirt. His shoulders twinged when he pulled it over his head and stuck his arms through the sleeves.

Agnes stood with her arms crossed, watching, looking ready to say, "I told you so" any moment now.

"I'd prefer to rest in my quarters," he said in a gesture to appease her.

She relented and came over to lend a supportive shoulder as he made his way out of sickbay. Unfortunately, right outside he found everyone sitting at the mess table, trying to look nonchalant and like they weren't waiting for him but failing when all their gazes immediately snapped his way.

His jaw tightened, but his guarded reflex eased up some when he saw genuine concern on most of their faces. Seven had a good poker face, like she knew open displays of emotion would make him uncomfortable. Yet she was there, sitting with the rest of them. Picard, of course, was the sage old man waiting patiently in the wings.

Rios sighed in resignation; he supposed he should just get it over with. He let Agnes walk him toward the table. Raffi stood up to make room for him to sit.

"Hey, how're you doing?" she asked.

"No permanent damage," he replied as he eased onto the bench seat.

Raffi looked to Agnes for confirmation, which made Rios roll his eyes.

"Still waiting for his body's natural electrical balance to go back to normal," Agnes reported. "But…no permanent damage."

"Why did those men have bones to pick with you?" Elnor spoke up.

The others all shot him pointed glares.

"What?" he asked, faltering. "I thought you all wanted to know."

"We need to talk about easing into things," Raffi replied. Shaking her head, she turned back to Rios. "So…this guy Saris…former business contact?"

"I did a couple runs for him in the past," Rios replied. He couldn't help but glance at Picard. "Some arms dealers sell to parties who really need the merchandise. The Fenris Rangers, for example."

Seven nodded. "You can't always be picky when you're fighting for survival."

"Yeah. But Saris started branching out. I was transporting some cargo for him a few years ago when I discovered it wasn't weapons but medical supplies he'd stolen from a humanitarian mission to a moon suffering from a pandemic. So I turned it and him into a Federation starbase. Last I knew he was in prison."

"Not anymore," Seven commented.

"So that's why he wanted to carve you up," Raffi added.

"Will he come after you again?" Soji asked.

Rios shrugged, wincing as he forgot his shoulders were still tight. "After what Elnor did to him…hard to say."

"Well, if he does, he'll have to go through us," Soji declared matter-of-factly.

"Speaking of which," Raffi said, leaning her arms on the table and giving Rios a serious look. "Seven and I were at the club. You honestly didn't think we'd notice some assholes crashing the party and come after you?"

Rios shook his head. "Honestly? It didn't cross my mind after Saris's goons grabbed me. In the past my contingency plan for problems off-ship was to activate an EH through the comm and have them beam me out. Which I'm sure is why Saris had his men go for my comm badge first."

"That was the past," Picard finally spoke. "This is the present. You're not operating on your own anymore, Rios."

No, he wasn't. And it was going to take some getting used to.

He canted his head in concession. "Duly noted."

But as Rios looked around at this motley crew of misfits that had dropped everything to come after him, who had more or less invited themselves onto his ship and decided to stay…he thought maybe this could be a good thing after all.


	5. Fear Is the True Destroyer

**A/N: Thank you ComtesseAlanna, SnidgetHex, pallysd'Artagnan,** **Lisa Raynow, and LornaWinters for your reviews! I hope my updates are helping people through this trying time in the world. And please keep reviewing, my readers, not just because they make my day but I'd like to know you're all still safe and well out there...**

**Enigma-the-mysterious made a post on tumblr about wanting Rios being a dad to Soji without him realizing it and my muse latched onto that, along with protective!Rios. And of course that equals whump because this is me.**

* * *

"Fear Is the True Destroyer"

Soji supposed it was only natural she be appointed one of the representatives for her synthetic people. She'd spent time among the organics, living as one of them—she could pass, put them at ease. Then there was Picard, who was the self-appointed emissary between the synths and the Federation, not to mention now possessing a synth body himself. So it was inevitable that he would drag her to a diplomatic function with Federation representatives to foster good will and understanding between the two groups.

She tried in the beginning, she did, being open when people asked her questions, but after a dozen rounds of the exact same thing, she was getting fed up. Picard was the one with the flowery words and moving speeches, and despite his fall from grace this past decade, he seemed to be back in his element.

Dr. Jurati was there too. People had a lot of questions for her as well, given synthetic life was her area of expertise.

So while Picard and Agnes seemed to be enjoying the party, Soji was beginning to feel suffocated. She slipped away unnoticed into the gardens outside where the air was crisp and everything was blissfully quiet and she could be alone.

Except, apparently she wasn't the only one to come out here seeking a respite.

Rios stood next to the garden wall, smoking one of his cigars. He cleaned up nice, dressed in a fine fitting black coat over a black button-down shirt.

"Shouldn't you be with Agnes?" Soji asked.

He glanced over at her. He'd come to the party as Agnes's date. "She's talking with a bunch of scientists in that special language of theirs that goes over the rest of our heads."

Soji's lips quirked. She'd be able to keep up with talk like that. Not that she would find it stimulating though. And she found it weird to be the subject of conversation in such a…scientific fashion. When she'd been working on the Reclamation Project on the Borg cube, she'd always felt this pull to humanize the xBs. Maybe it was a subconscious acknowledgement of her own state of existence.

She walked over to the wall to join Rios. "Why do you like those?" she asked, indicating the cigar.

He glanced at it and shrugged. "Old habit."

She found herself put off by smoking but didn't know whether that was her or just part of her programmed memories. "Can I try?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's a bad habit."

Soji crossed her arms. "I'm not a child."

Rios snorted. "You're three years old, remember, _hija_? Come back in fifteen years."

She shot him an exasperated look. "I'm not planning on becoming a chain smoker." She wrinkled her nose. "It smells."

He arched a brow at her.

"I was just curious what the draw is."

He angled a sidelong look her way. After several moments, he tipped the ember smoldering end and answered, "Slow burn. You can't rush smoking a cigar. Slows everything down."

Soji frowned. "I don't get it."

"It's not important." Rios went back to his smoke.

She felt a pang of disappointment. "I'd still like to know."

He considered her for another long moment, smoke floating out past his lips in lazy puffs. "It started as a prop for a monthly poker game on the holodeck. Later I…found it helped with a particular problem. Inhale, exhale, watch the smoke float away, the embers burn down. Slow and steady."

Soji furrowed her brow. She'd done enough work with the xBs to make the psychological inference. "You used them for anxiety attacks."

The look he leveled at her warned she was broaching unacceptable subjects and she bit back sharing her next deduction.

"Do you still use them for that?" she asked instead, tentatively, not wanting to violate the boundary he'd clearly established.

"Not really," he said, taking another puff. "Like I said, old habit."

They were interrupted by footsteps on the stone path and Soji glanced over, half-expecting Picard to have tracked her down to drag her back to the party. But it was a young man in a Starfleet dress uniform—and he was aiming a phaser straight at her.

"You," he ground out, face pale and beaded with sweat. His arm trembled. "Murderer."

"Whoa," Rios said, spreading his arms slightly. "I don't know who you think she is—"

"She's a _synth_," he spat. "Synths destroyed Mars. They killed my father. And now the Federation wants to let them back? When they look like _that_? When they can hide among us, pick us off one by one!" He jabbed his phaser hatefully at Soji.

"That's not what we want," she started, but he cut her off.

"You'll kill us all! Here, with all these leaders gathered. It's a trap, isn't it?"

Soji could only gape at him incredulously. "_No_."

"Kid," Rios interjected again, inching closer to Soji. "Put that down, before you do something you can't take back."

The officer's chin quivered as he glared at them both. Soji could feel her self-defense protocols activating. She could take him out in two seconds flat. Her mind was already calculating the moves, planning which way she'd dodge when he fired…

But she didn't get the chance. Rios grabbed her and pulled her down as the phaser erupted. She landed on her elbow, pain shooting up through her arm and briefly numbing it. Rios rolled off of her with a gasp. Soji's eyes went wide when she saw the bloody trough furrowed across his side.

"Rios!"

She whipped her head up toward the Starfleet officer, who was staring slack-jawed at them. Before he could decide to shoot again, Soji leaped to her feet and bolted toward him, grabbing the phaser and wrenching it from his grip. She threw a roundhouse kick at his back, dropping him to his knees.

But these weren't self-defense protocols activating; no, she wanted to hurt him. She punched his face twice until he pitched sideways into the grass, then dropped down on top of his stomach to straddle him.

"Soji!" Rios shouted. "Stop!"

She froze, arm pulled up behind her head to pound the guy into the ground, and twisted to look at Rios. His face was turned toward her, pinched with pain as his chest hitched and his arm shook where it hovered over the wound.

"He's just scared," he gasped out breathlessly. "Remember when you were afraid that- organic life would exterminate you? How that fear drove you to- go on the offensive? Fear is the real enemy here, not that kid. You have more in common than you think."

Soji sat there for a long moment, suspended between logic and reaction. She glanced down as a pitiful whimper emanated from the guy beneath her. He hated her. Because he was afraid.

She pushed herself off of him, chest heaving. Picking up the phaser, she chucked it through the air with all her strength, then rushed back to Rios's side.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded, pushing his arm away so she could see the damage.

Rios sucked in a pained breath. "Couldn't let him…shoot you. You bleed too, you know."

"I could have dodged the shot."

He blinked, then dropped his head back on the ground. "Now you tell me." He choked on another strained sound. "But would you have then killed him?"

Soji faltered. "I…he attacked me first."

Rios gave a jerky nod. "Instinct, right?"

Instinct, programming…would she have even realized what she was doing until after it was over?

Rios nodded again like he could read her thoughts. "So, not a waste," he grunted.

Soji's heart was pounding and she quickly opened up a comm link. "_La Sirena_, activate EMH."

"_What is the nature of your- um, hello?_"

"Emil, I need you to beam me and Rios to the ship."

"_Uh, that's not really my—_"

"Then activate one of the other EHs!" Soji snapped. "Rios has been shot."

"_Ah. Right then._"

"Just hold on," she pleaded.

Rios gave her a pained smile that came out more as a grimace. "Not…going anywhere."

A few agonizingly long minutes later, the whorl of transporter lights finally enveloped them, and the next thing Soji saw were the white walls of _La Sirena_'s sickbay.

The EMH immediately bent down to haul Rios off the floor, eliciting a stifled cry of pain from the man. Soji helped support his weight as they moved him to the medical bed and then Emil started pulling up the bio readings and peeling the tattered fabric away from the wound.

"Only you could manage to get shot at a party," the EMH said drolly.

Rios let out a small huff but then his eyes started to roll back.

"Do something!" Soji yelled.

"Calm down," the EMH responded as he deftly loaded a hypospray and injected its contents into Rios's neck. "I can only deal with one emergency at a time."

Rios stopped shaking and his breathing started to even out. Emil turned his attention to the ghastly wound.

Soji backed up against the counter, not knowing what to do. They were the only ones here; everyone else had taken the opportunity to go out for some fun while the others were required to attend the diplomatic gathering. Some diplomacy.

She watched Emil patch Rios up, starting with the deeper part of the wound and working his way up, mending sundered sinew and flesh.

"What's going on in that head of yours, _hija_?" Rios spoke up weakly.

She blinked. "Nothing. Just…I guess I thought that after Coppelius, things would be different. We have the Federation's protection. The ban's been lifted." She shook her head. "It's not that simple though, is it?"

"Not for everyone," he agreed, wincing. "Laws are more easily changed than hearts."

"So what do I do? I feel like I'm back where I was, having to choose to fight or be killed."

"You're forgetting you have friends who will defend you," he replied.

"So I have to choose between you fighting or dying for me?" She stepped closer to the bed. "I'm not okay with that either."

"I didn't die," he pointed out.

"That was his mantra before you came along, by the way," Emil chimed in.

"Are you done?" Rios growled at him, but it only served to elicit another pained hiss.

"No. Your liver is still showing," the EMH retorted and went back to his work.

Soji grimaced and tore her gaze away from the wound. "So that's it? I just let you jump in front of phaser fire for me?"

Rios lolled his head in lieu of a shrug. "Next time I'll let you dodge it," he murmured.

"You're expecting a next time."

He forced his eyes fully open to give her a somber look. "The universe is full of fear, hatred, and cruelty. The challenge is not to let it turn you into the same."

Soji fell silent as she digested that. She had once tried to understand the logic of sacrifice. Now she was trying to understand the logic of martyrdom. But maybe it wasn't a matter of logic; maybe it was a matter of heart.

Her comm pinged with an incoming transmission.

"_Soji, where are you?_" Picard asked urgently.

She stepped away from the medical bed. "I'm on _La Sirena_."

"_Security found video of what happened in the gardens. Why didn't you call for help?_"

"Rios needed emergency medical attention."

"_Which we would have provided._"

"_La Sirena_ seemed more expedient," she said. "Besides," she added, "I feel safe here."

She caught Rios's eye, a shared understanding passing between them.

Picard sighed. "_How is Rios?_"

"I'll be fine," he spoke up, though Soji didn't think he sounded that convincing. "I know what the video captured, but I'd like to point out that Soji was just acting in defense of us both."

Picard heaved a heavy sigh again. "_Starfleet will want statements from both of you at some point._"

"Can it wait until the captain doesn't have a bloody crater in his side?" Emil put in huffily.

"_Of course. Soji…are you all right?_"

She looked at Rios again, thinking back on his words and everything that'd happened that afternoon. "I will be," she said, then signed off the comm. Casting a look back at Rios, she asked wryly, "Can I try the cigars if it's for my own coping mechanism?"

He rolled his eyes closed and didn't respond.


	6. Venom

**A/N: Warning for giant centipede... ****Thanks tessseagull for the Spanish and 29pieces for beta reading!**

* * *

"Venom"

Agnes climbed up the steps from the mess to the upper deck, pausing to take in the convex edge of the desert side of the planet they were in orbit above. The glimmer of the transporter lights reflecting off the metal paneling inside the ship drew her attention to the stern, and she headed that way as Cris finished beaming the last crates onto the transporter pad.

"What are we transporting this time?" she asked buoyantly in an attempt to make conversation.

Cris wordlessly went over and popped off one of the lids, revealing an entire rack of brandy bottles.

"Oh. Is it any good?"

"No sampling of the merchandise," he said with a teasing glint.

"We'd better hide it from Raffi then," Agnes said, flashing him a conspiratorial wink.

He gave her an indulgent smile in return and hefted the first crate off the pad and transferred it onto a nearby cart. "Loufian brandy isn't to her taste anyway."

Agnes reached out to pick up a crate, but it turned out it was rather heavy and all she managed was to rattle its contents. Cris quickly ducked in to take it from her, and she smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Thought I could help."

He set the crate aside and turned back, leaning down for a kiss. Agnes tilted her head up to receive it, but then stopped as she heard a strange noise, like tapping or clicking. Movement out of the corner of her eye had her jerking away from Cris as a giant centipede like creature came crawling around the side of one of the crates. Agnes screamed.

The myriapod reared up and made a hissing sound, then leaped through the air. Cris spun and threw his arm up in front of Agnes to shield her. The creature collided with his arm and didn't let go. Cris let out a pained cry and tried to fling it off, but the thing was latched on tightly. Agnes screamed again and scrambled backward, casting her gaze around for a weapon. But then Cris grabbed its lower half and wrenched it away, flinging it to the floor. The thing went skittering away down the corridor, its exoskeleton shimmering as it blended into its surroundings like a chameleon.

"What the hell was that?" Agnes screeched as she rushed back to Cris's side.

He was clutching his arm and grunting in pain but pushed past her and staggered over to the controls where he slammed a button. Red lights lit up throughout the ship as an alert began to blare. He then tapped a few more controls, initiating a comm link, and started yelling at whoever was on the other end about alien insects in the cargo.

Agnes steeled herself and marched after him, taking his arm and rolling up his sleeve while he continued to berate his supplier. Her eyes widened at the series of small punctures all up and down his arm. They were hardly bleeding, save for a few smears that'd rubbed against the inside of his shirt, but they were dark, almost black at the center of the wounds, and the surrounding skin was turning white and puffy.

"Shit," she breathed.

"What's going on?" Seven's demanding voice sounded as she and the others came hurrying out to discover the source of the commotion.

"Yeah, where's the fire?" Raffi added, looking around the otherwise calm ship as the lights continued to pulse red with warning.

"Some giant myriapod creature got onboard," Agnes quickly explained. "Probably with the cargo that just got beamed up. It bit Rios."

"A myriapod?" Seven repeated, her gaze sharpening. "From the planet? What did it look like?"

"I don't know, like a myriapod," Agnes answered irritably. Cris was leaning heavily against the control console and sweat had begun to break out across his forehead. He cursed under his breath and disconnected his comm call.

"And it has some kind of camouflage capability," Agnes added. "Blended right in with the walls as it ran away."

"What's a myriapod?" Elnor asked.

"A giant insect," Raffi replied.

"Not technically," Agnes interjected, then shook her head. "But that's not the point. This thing is humongous. Like the length of my arm." And it was freakin' scary, not to mention it could become _invisible_.

"They're native to the planet," Cris put in gruffly. "And have a tendency to get into cool dark places. Which is why storage facilities are supposed to have filtering systems to keep them out."

"Are you familiar with the species?" Picard asked Seven, eyeing her shrewdly.

She nodded. "They're carnivorous." She flicked a look at Cris. "And their venom is deadly."

Everyone else's gazes turned toward Cris just as he gasped in pain and doubled over the control console.

"Activate EMH!" Agnes screamed, grabbing his arm and trying to keep him from falling to the floor.

Emil flickered on in the midst of them. "What is the nature of your medical emergency?"

"He's been bitten by an alien arthropod," Agnes said. "I think it might be venomous."

Emil's brows rose sharply and he quickly ordered a med kit to materialize in his possession. Soji hurried over to help Agnes support Cris's weight as Emil scanned him with a medical tricorder.

Emil snapped the tricorder closed abruptly. "We need to get him down to the med bay."

"This creature is still loose on the ship?" Picard brought up.

Elnor immediately unsheathed his sword and turned in a slow circle. Raffi and Seven exchanged swift looks before going to the armory cabinet and grabbing some phaser rifles.

"Right," Emil said. "If we're all ready…"

Agnes pressed herself against Cris's side, worried about taking his weight when she couldn't even lift a container of brandy. But Soji's strength more than made up for it, and their whole group began to carefully make their way down to the lower deck's med bay. The doors swished open and they all filed inside. Agnes could feel Cris already burning up with fever as she helped lay him down on the bio bed and Emil activated the monitors.

Soji abruptly straightened. "Do you hear that?"

Agnes tensed. "Hear what?"

Soji's gaze tracked to the left, then slowly across the med bay that seemed perfectly undisturbed. Then Agnes heard it too—the click, click, click of tiny appendages.

"Where the hell is it?" Raffi snapped, whipping her phaser around.

Agnes caught sight of one of Emil's plants behind Picard bending in a distorted fashion, like a hologram whose matrix was destabilizing. The air around it wobbled too, and Agnes screamed and pointed just as the myriapod's exoskeleton rippled back into its natural color and it went crawling down the side of the cabinet to the floor.

Picard scrambled away and Raffi and Seven fired. One of the plasma shots skimmed its tough exoskeleton, and the myriapod let out a high-pitched shriek and went fleeing out the doors, its body wobbling into the surrounding colors again. Seven stormed toward the doors, looked out, then slammed the control panel to seal them.

"Son-of-a-bitch," Raffi swore.

"Can we beam it off?" Picard asked.

Seven and Raffi moved toward a computer console and started pulling up systems in tandem.

"Sensors aren't detecting it," Seven reported.

"Can you recalibrate them?" Raffi asked.

"Perhaps. We would all be stuck in here until it was successful."

"I'll hunt the creature down," Elnor declared, raising his sword in a show of force.

"No!" Emil interjected. "I need it alive."

"Excuse me?" Agnes blurted.

"I need a sample of its venom in order to create an anti-venom," the EMH explained. "Or Captain Rios is going to die."

Agnes snapped her gaze back to where Cris was lying on the bio bed, breaths coming rapid and shallow, his pallor ashen.

"So we must capture it instead?" Elnor asked.

"I'm afraid there may not be time for that," Emil replied as he went to the replicator and started punching a sequence into the control panel. "The creature is a predator, yes? The fastest way to get what we need is to lure it out and get it to bite into these gel packs."

"Um, how exactly are we supposed to get it to do that?" Raffi asked.

Emil picked up the gel packs he'd just replicated and demonstrated strapping it over his forearm. "The venom will be injected into the sacs and then I can extract it and synthesize an anti-venom."

"No," Cris ground out.

Agnes rushed back to his side, not realizing he was still conscious. "You're dying," she argued, pushing him back against the bed.

"It's too dangerous," he said between pained breaths. He grunted under another wave of pain. "Have Emmett do it."

Emil canted his head. "That works."

"Activate ETH," Raffi said.

While the others proceeded to fill the Tactical EH in and implement the plan, Agnes kept her full attention on Cris, who had dropped his head back against the bed and was shuddering in agony.

"You're going to be all right," she said, stroking sweaty hair back from his forehead. "Our crew's got this."

He prized his eyes open to half mast and mustered a weak smile. "Our crew," he repeated hoarsely, then huffed. "Never thought I'd be happy to have one again."

He sucked in a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes closed, and the pain monitor started beeping in alarm.

"Emil!" Agnes called urgently.

The EMH rushed over to resume his duties keeping Rios alive long enough for them to get an anti-venom.

Agnes turned to the others. "Hurry."

.o.0.o.

Emmett stalked through the ship's lower deck, eyes peeled for the intruder. He had a variety of weapons strapped to his utility vest, including some rather large hunting knives, but his mission here wasn't extermination, it was the gel sacs strapped to his forearm. He just needed to tempt the little bugger out to bite him there, get a sample of its venom, and then he could blow the thing to smithereens.

But as he made his way back down the length of the ship, the thing still hadn't shown itself. Huffing in irritation, Emmett headed up to the deck above. It would be helpful if someone would adjust the internal sensors to give him a direction to go.

He whistled as he moved along the open railing. "Here, creeper, creeper. _Sal de donde estés_."

Still nothing.

He walked down to the crates the creature had stowed away in to begin with and did a visual scan of the open container in case it'd gone back in to take a nap or make a nest. But it wasn't there. At least not that Emmett could see. Supposedly the thing could blend in with its surroundings, making it nearly invisible.

He kicked the side of the crate for good measure, but nothing came skittering out to attack him.

"Emmett, what's your progress?" Raffi asked over the comm.

"Is no good," he replied.

He heard her make a frustrated sound on the other end of the link. "Where the hell is it? Rios is running out of time, Emmett."

"Hey, I gave it open target. What more you want?" he rejoined.

"A hologram isn't going to entice it," Picard's voice interjected. "Holograms don't give off heartbeats or the scent of fresh prey." There was a pregnant pause as they realized what Picard was about to say next.

"We need live bait."

.o.0.o.

Soji stood back, listening to Picard, Raffi, and Emmett talking over the comms. Their plan wasn't going to work without someone putting themselves at risk.

She looked over at Rios, who was twitching and shuddering in the throes of a rising fever, the venom wreaking havoc on his system. Agnes and the EMH were doing everything they could to cool him down and slow the effects, but they were only buying minutes.

"I'll draw the creature out," she said, turning back to the others.

"Uh, hold on," Raffi started.

"I have the fastest reflexes," Soji cut her off. "If anyone has the best chance of getting it, it's me."

"My reflexes are fast," Elnor put in. "I will go with you."

Soji shook her head. "Not as fast as a synth. And we can't tempt it with more than one target. It has to attack the person wearing the gel packs, and that should be me."

They all exchanged uncertain looks at her argument. Seven was the first to shrug.

"We're running out of time," she pointed out.

Soji gave a staunch nod. She was going to do this. "Emmett, come on back," she called.

They waited for the ETH to return, and once he did, Raffi took the gel packs off him and strapped them onto Soji's arm.

"Be careful," she warned. "And good luck."

Soji nodded, took a deep breath, and turned to walk out of the secure med bay. Emmett followed behind her and flicked two fingers at his eyes then at her. She gave him an appreciative nod and then started cautiously making her way through the mess. Emmett stayed several feet behind but kept pace with her.

Soji strained her hearing for that clicking noise from before to indicate where the creature might be located. But she didn't hear anything except the subtle whir of the ship's systems.

"Come on, where are you?" she muttered anxiously. She cast a look over her shoulder at Emmett. He shrugged.

Then she heard it, the faintest tapping like a slow moving insect across metal, and she whirled in search of it. The creature must have been camouflaged though, because she didn't see it. She focused on narrowing her senses to her hearing, trying to home in on it that way.

A soft click sounded to her left and she snapped her gaze that direction. Some of the metal paneling seemed to wobble ever so slightly, but it was difficult to tell. Soji took a breath and tried adjusting the spectrum her eyes were seeing. It startled her when it worked, and her vision shifted abruptly, but now she was able to see the refracting waves off the creature's exoskeleton.

Pulse quickening, Soji inched closer, arm extended horizontally. A split second later, the myriapod shrieked and attacked, launching itself off the wall with a shimmer of air. Soji barely threw her arm up in time—thank goodness for synth reflexes—and the arthropod sank its teeth into the gel packs instead of flesh. She nearly screamed as the massive body writhed and dangled from her arm, but she saw the venom successfully squirt into the gel packs.

"Emmett!"

The ETH surged forward and grabbed the thing with his bare hands, ripping it free. It flailed and squealed in his hand as he spun around and raised a phaser with his other, yelling something in Spanish as he fired. The creature exploded, splattering goop everywhere. Only Emmett standing between it and Soji saved her from getting hit with gore.

She stared in stupefaction as he turned around with a satisfied grin, heedless of the green glop all over his face and clothes. He cocked his head toward the med bay.

Soji gave herself a sharp shake. Right. She sprinted across the deck and hit the outer control panel. The doors swooshed open, and inside Seven and Raffi tensed with their phaser rifles.

"Got it!" Soji yelled, holding up her arm.

Emil hurried over to take the gel packs from her. "Not a moment too soon," he uttered as he turned to begin his work synthesizing an anti-venom.

Soji looked across the bay at the erratic bio readings on the monitor and felt her chest constrict. She hoped she wasn't too late.

.o.0.o.

Raffi sat by Cris's bedside, watching the steady, sedate lines on the bio signs monitor. Emil had successfully created an anti-venom and administered it, and several hours afterward, Cris's fever had gone down and his vitals had stabilized. Emil hadn't wanted to induce wakefulness with a hypo, though, advocating Rios get all the rest his body obviously needed to recover from the trauma. But given just how long it was taking him, Raffi would feel better once he did wake up.

And a few minutes later, she was finally rewarded by a languid opening of his eyes.

She leaned forward with a smile. "Hey."

Rios blinked slowly. "I take it you got an antidote," he said hoarsely.

"Anti-venom, yes."

He shifted his gaze around the bay. "Anyone hurt?"

"No. The thing's dead, too. Also, I dealt with the merchant you picked up that shipment from and convinced him to compensate you since it was his storage facility that had the containment failure."

Cris hummed and looked around again.

Raffi smiled knowingly. "We convinced Agnes to finally get some sleep after she spent eighteen hours glued to your side."

Cris's eyes widened. "What?" he blurted. "How long have I been out?"

"Over a day."

Rios scowled and looked ready to get up, but Raffi pressed a hand to his shoulder.

"Don't blame Emil. The anti-venom may have neutralized the harmful effects of the toxin, but it still took a while to filter the substances out of your system and to reverse the damage it caused."

Cris dropped his head back against the pillow. "Guess that explains why I feel wrecked."

"Good guess." Raffi gaze his shoulder a squeeze. "You should go back to sleep. That way when Agnes comes back you can pretend you woke up the first time with her."

His lips quirked and he sighed, eyelids drifting shut. Raffi leaned back, content to go back to sitting vigil, but Cris reached out to snag her hand.

"Thank you," he said, opening his eyes and meeting her gaze. "For staying."

Raffi quirked a confused look at him, thinking at first that he meant now, in the med bay. But then she realized he meant on _La Sirena_.

Smiling, she squeezed his hand in return. "Thank you for giving me a home again."

And what a home it was, with this motley group of misfits that somehow felt like family.


	7. Space Junk

**A/N: Inspired by an SG-1 episode. Thanks to 29pieces for beta reading! And thank you pallysAramisRios for reviewing the last chapter! No worries, the site wasn't posting new updates for several days so you would have been behind on the reading anyway.  
**

* * *

"Space Junk"

Rios selected the pre-programmed specifications for a cup of coffee on the replicator and waited for the brew to materialize. Once it had, full of steamy, earthy richness, he took the mug and headed up to the bridge where he found Raffi and Soji engaged over some readings.

"It's a piece of space junk," Raffi said.

"Look at this alloy composition," Soji replied. "It doesn't resemble anything in the database." She straightened with enthusiasm. "Let's beam it aboard."

"Hold it, _hija_," Rios interjected. "Forgetting whose ship this is again? You're not beaming anything aboard without my okay."

She had the grace to give him a sheepish look. "But aren't we explorers?" she pressed. "Isn't investigating new things what we do?"

Rios had half a mind to point out that he was the captain of a transport ship, not a Starfleet vessel, but he suspected she was appealing to that unifying quality of humanity—curiosity. He turned to Raffi for support, but she just shrugged.

"I admit, I'm curious," she said. "If it's not, in fact, space junk."

Soji gave Rios a hopeful, almost childlike look of beseechingness.

He let out an audible huff. "Fine." Striding to the control console, he tapped the internal comm system. "Attention all hands, just wanted to warn you we're about to beam an unknown artifact aboard for study," he announced dryly. "Should anyone want to stay in their quarters for the next few hours."

Raffi rolled her eyes, and the three of them made their way down the deck to the transporter pad in the rear. Rios's announcement seemed to have drawn everyone else out as well.

"I'm sorry, we're doing what?" Agnes said. "Is it safe to beam an unknown object aboard?"

"Risk is part of exploration," Picard answered, shooting Rios a curious glance.

"They're the ones who want to play explorers," Rios said, canting his head toward Soji and Raffi. "I'm just the cruise director here." He set his cup of coffee down and started getting a lock on the object.

Picard hummed knowingly and bit back a small smile as he turned to the two women.

"The sensors don't recognize it from the database," Soji said excitedly. "It could be part of the advanced synth race that used to live in this dimension."

"Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Raffi cautioned.

"Right, of course." Soji turned to look at Rios expectantly.

He initiated the transporter beam, and a moment later a swirl of lights filled the transporter pad, rematerializing a perfect metal sphere with smooth exterior that didn't appear to have any visible access panel. Raffi moved in with a tricorder while everyone else examined it visually.

"I've never seen anything like it," Picard commented.

"Neither has the Borg," Seven said.

Rios reached for his coffee mug to take a sip. Maybe he was mildly curious, a lingering sense of excitement for adventure stirring from a dark corner long forgotten. He didn't encourage it.

Soji approached the object, almost mesmerized by its sleek, rather pristine condition given it'd been floating out in space. She reached out and placed her palm against the smooth metal. The sphere made a clicking noise and started to whir.

Raffi snapped her head up from the tricorder. "What did you do?"

"I don't know! I just touched it!"

"You don't go touching strange objects!"

Rios scowled and thrust his coffee cup into one of the small alcoves before turning back to the transporter console and pulling up the internal sensors.

"What's it doing?" Elnor asked.

Raffi scanned the tricorder up and down the object. Her eyes blew wide. "It's building a charge!"

"Like a bomb?" Agnes exclaimed.

"I'm beaming it back out," Rios said and began to tap the command sequence.

Yet before he could finish, the sphere suddenly shot out two steel rods, down through the transporter pad and into the floor. Broken glass went flying with a shower of sparks. Rios cursed and started to initiate the transport, but then several more rods came shooting out in several directions to pierce the hull. One flew right at Rios, slamming through his shoulder and carrying him through the air a few feet before impaling him to the wall. All breath stole from his lungs and everything momentarily whited out in agony. Someone screamed.

"Beam it out!" Raffi yelled.

Agnes ran to the control panel to take over. "I can't!" she shouted.

Rios clutched at the metal rod protruding from his shoulder, frantically trying to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. His fingers slipped over the smooth steel made slick by the little bit of blood leaking out from the hole it'd punched clean through him. He was stuck like a fish on a harpoon. The sphere seemed to settle and stopped making noise.

"Is it still going to explode?" Elnor asked nervously.

Raffi swept the tricorder over it again. "No, I don't think so. The charge stopped building."

"Activate EMH," Picard barked.

Emil flickered into view. "What is the nature of your medical emergency?"

Picard gestured urgently toward Rios. Emil turned, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

"Impaled again, hm?" he quipped.

Rios growled something unflattering in Spanish, but then slammed his head back against the wall behind him as the fire in his shoulder burned fiercer.

"Emil," Agnes snapped.

"Right, sorry," the EMH apologized. "This is a rather larger piece than last time."

"And I'm afraid it goes into the wall," Picard added.

Rios was starting to shake and a chill was creeping through his limbs. He heard Emil let out a soft curse, and then a hypospray was pressed against his neck.

"Something to combat the shock," Emil said, then proceeded to examine the situation.

Rios wanted to snark at him that he never seemed able to do the simple task of getting things _out _of where they shouldn't be, but he didn't have the breath for it.

Emil made a tutting sound. "The rod goes into the hull by 3.2 feet."

"Same with the others," Seven reported, having done an inspection of the other offending objects that had anchored themselves to the ship. She turned with a grim expression. "This thing obviously doesn't want to go anywhere."

.o.0.o.

Raffi jabbed at the tricorder keys, trying to recalibrate it so the sensors would make an accurate scan of the sphere, but the alien object must have had some kind of electromagnetic shielding or something, because the scans weren't getting anything. And there were no markings on the exterior of the sphere, nothing to give Raffi a clue as to what it was or how to disarm it. Because she was definitely considering this a hostile invader. At least the energy and radiation surge it was building had stopped, so it didn't look like it was going to detonate. But they were in serious trouble.

Raffi turned away from the sphere to look at Cris. Emil and Elnor were just getting a raised stool under him so he could sit and alleviate as much pressure on the wound as possible.

"Get this fuckin' thing off my ship," Rios gritted out.

Elnor glanced around at the various rods anchored to _La Sirena_. "How?"

Agnes was still at the transporter controls. "The system can't differentiate between the metal and Cris for some reason."

"There's something else here," Seven said, also going over the readings.

Agnes furrowed her brow and leaned closer to look, then blanched. "There are nanoprobes in the metal…and in Cris's bloodstream. That's why the transporter can't separate them."

"_Nanoprobes_?" Rios blurted in obvious horror. "I thought you said this thing wasn't Borg!"

"It's not," Seven said. "And these aren't Borg nanoprobes."

"Then what kind are they?" Picard asked.

Seven shook her head. "I've never seen them before."

"But the point is we can't beam the thing out without beaming Rios with it," Raffi checked.

Seven gave a grim nod. "Precisely."

"Then cut it off!" Rios growled.

Seven went to the armory cabinet and pulled out one of the high-powered phaser rifles. After adjusting the settings, she then moved to stand over the rod skewering Rios, halfway between him and the sphere. "It's going to get warm," she warned.

Rios gave a jerky nod. "Do it."

Seven powered on the phaser and began shooting a steady beam of energy at the rod.

Raffi abandoned her efforts to scan the thing and went over to stand next to Rios, reaching down to squeeze his hand where it sat limply in his lap.

He lolled his gaze toward her. "This is the last time I let you beam space junk aboard my ship," he breathed out.

"Absolutely," she agreed.

A few minutes later, Cris squeezed his eyes shut and tried to bite back a groan. Raffi flicked a glance down the rod and saw it was beginning to glow hot. In fact, the entire deck was feeling warmer as the heat generated from the continuous phaser fire emanated through it.

"Elnor, can you get some water for Rios?" Raffi asked.

The kid nodded and hurried down to the mess replicator, always eager to help.

Raffi brushed some of Rios's damp hair away from his forehead. "Hang in there, just a little longer."

He didn't respond, too focused on breathing.

Raffi watched Seven's progress, watched her ever so slowly cut through the alien metal. She was almost through.

The sphere started whirring and grinding again and the rod suddenly shot forward, the hot piece going all the way into Cris and out of sight. He screamed and immediately passed out, sagging limply on the stool.

"Cris!" Raffi yelled, gripping his shoulder. "Son-of-a-bitch!"

Seven was staring in disbelief, as was everyone else.

"It's defending itself," Picard declared. "First when we tried to beam it back out into space, and again now. It's an intelligent life form."

"Intelligent or not," Emil spoke up as he ran a tricorder over an unconscious Rios. "If it keeps this up, it's going to kill the captain."

.o.0.o.

Soji stood off to the side as Emil urgently worked to stabilize Rios after the sphere had shot molten metal into his shoulder. This was all her fault; she'd convinced Rios to beam the unknown object aboard. She'd been so excited at the prospect that it might belong to a synth race that she'd forgotten all her training as a scientist. Or, programming, since she'd never actually gone to school to earn her degree. But she should have known better.

And now that it seemed that she'd been proven right, that the entity did possess some kind of artificial intelligence and was intentionally hurting Rios, Soji just wanted to fix her mistake.

She looked at the sphere, quiet again now that it'd foiled their latest attempt to get rid of it. "Um, hello?" she tried addressing it. "Can you understand me? We don't mean you any harm. Please, stop hurting our friend."

The device didn't give any kind of response.

"Maybe it's not that intelligent," Elnor put in.

Soji didn't think so. Making physical contact had woken it in the first place; maybe that was the key to communicating with it as well. She cautiously moved closer and reached out a hand. Several voices yelled at her to stop, but she pressed her palm against the sphere. There was a brief moment of nothing, but then she jolted at the electrical impulses tingling her skin as the device attempted to interface with her. The echoing voice that abruptly filled her head was disorienting, and it took all of her concentration to not break the connection. Whatever language the entity was speaking, it wasn't one Soji understood, and she had every known language in her memory bank.

_"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying,"_ she telegraphed.

There was a pause, then a shuffling of words as the entity adapted.

Soji sucked in an awed breath. _"Can you understand me?"_

_"You are synthetic,"_ overlapping voices responded.

_"Yes. So are you."_

_"You rescued us from being adrift in space."_

_"Us?"_

_"We are a composite matrix of synthetic organisms. Our vessel was damaged. You rescued us. But then you tried to maroon us again."_

_"No!"_ Soji exclaimed. _"We thought the energy readings you were giving off when you activated were dangerous to us. We were just trying to protect ourselves."_ She paused. _"Sort of like how you shot those rods into our ship so you wouldn't be tossed back out into space."_

_"We cannot go back until our vessel is repaired."_

_"We can help you repair it,"_ Soji said earnestly. _"But, please, release Captain Rios."_

_"We do that, and you will eject us into space."_

_"No, we won't,"_ she promised. _"We're explorers, eager to seek out new life in the galaxy. That's why we beamed you aboard in the first place: we wanted to learn about you. We can learn about each other."_

_"Yes, we are cataloguing the organic structure of your humanoid companion."_

Soji stiffened. _"You mean with the nanoprobes? Is that all they're doing?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Can you remove them?"_ she asked carefully.

The entity—or entities—didn't respond.

_"Please,"_ Soji pleaded. _"I'm asking you to trust me, synth to synth."_

They were still silent, but Soji got the sense they were deliberating.

Then, like a balloon popping, Soji suddenly snapped back to her physical body and the sound of Picard's voice urgently calling her name.

"I'm here," she said. "I've been communicating with the synthetic life forms in the sphere." She turned to Picard. "You were right, they were just trying to protect themselves. The sphere is like their ship and it needs repairs. They were afraid we'd strand them in space again."

"Have you told them we're not a threat?" Raffi asked.

"I'm trying to convince them of that," Soji replied. She glanced over at Rios, her chest tightening when she saw he looked to be in bad shape.

"Whoa, the nanoprobes are doing something," Agnes spoke up in alarm from the control console.

A moment later, the steel rods suddenly began to retract from the walls and slide back into the sphere, even the one that had Rios pinned to the wall. Emil and Elnor caught an unconscious Rios before he fell off the stool.

Soji turned back to the sphere. _"Thank you,"_ she spoke through their connection.

_"Do not trick us,"_ they warned her.

_"I won't,"_ she promised. _"In fact, I have just the thing that will fix up your vessel in no time."_

.o.0.o.

Using the synth device from Coppelius, Soji was able to repair the sphere no problem. But now that their vessel was restored, they were ready to leave.

_"But I have so many questions,"_ Soji protested.

_"Your mission is to seek out new synthetic life,"_ they responded. _"That is not our mission. We are a monitoring station."_ They paused. _"But we will relay your wish for contact to the others."_

Soji was disappointed, but what could she do? She pulled her hand away from the sphere, breaking the interface.

Seven stood at the transporter controls and initiated the transport sequence. This time the swirling lights encased the sphere without resistance, and in the next moment, it was gone.

Seven arched an eyebrow. "They've completely disappeared off sensors."

Soji sighed.

Picard walked over to her. "You did an excellent job with your first First Contact."

She snorted. "Some good job. I endangered the whole crew and almost got Captain Rios killed."

"Do you know how many First Contacts started as precipices for disaster? It's part of being an explorer." He gave her a fond smile and patted her shoulder before heading off.

Soji went down to the med bay to check on Rios. The patient alcove was brightly lit and Rios was lying on his side as Emil finished up surgery on his shoulder. Agnes was standing at one of the bio monitors, carefully watching the readings.

"Are the nanoprobes gone?" Soji asked.

"Yes. It doesn't look like they caused any damage."

"They weren't supposed to."

The two of them watched Emil finish the surgery and begin putting his instruments away.

"Will he be okay?" Soji asked worriedly.

Emil nodded. "The damage was extensive—massive tearing, broken shoulder blade, and then the cauterization that heated piece of metal did."

Soji grimaced.

Agnes cleared her throat pointedly, and Emil abruptly straightened.

"Oh, but yes, he's going to be perfectly fine. It'll be a couple of hours before he wakes, though."

"I'd like to hang around, if that's alright," Soji said.

Emil and Agnes exchanged a look, and the EMH nodded. "Of course."

Soji belatedly realized that Agnes probably wanted to stick close to Rios and wait for him to wake up, but she must have sensed how guilty Soji was feeling, because she graciously left the med bay to give them privacy.

Just as Emil said, it was a couple of hours before Rios finally woke, and in that time, Soji's guilt hadn't abated in the slightest. She was so wrapped up in it that she almost missed him clawing his way back to consciousness with a faint grunt. His eyelids fluttered and he lolled his gaze around the med bay.

"What happened to the thing?" he asked weakly.

"It's gone. It left willingly. Even pulled all the nanoprobes out of you, so you don't have to worry about that."

Rios grunted and reached an arm across his torso to tentatively prod at his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Soji blurted.

"For what?" he huffed, grimacing as he examined the area that'd been punctured.

"For nearly getting you killed."

He stopped his poking and gave her a pointed look. "It was my call to beam the thing aboard."

"But I pushed you into doing it."

Rios let out a soft snort. "_Hija_, nobody makes me do anything I don't want to. Stuff like that happened back when I was in Starfleet. It's all par for the course."

"That's what Picard said."

"He's right." Rios went back to fussing over his shoulder, and Soji knew if Emil were online, he'd be having a hissy fit.

"But you're not an explorer anymore," she pointed out.

He sighed and let his arm drop across his chest. "I may have left Starfleet, but…Starfleet didn't leave me," he admitted. "A part of me was intrigued by the thing—up until I got impaled."

Soji managed to quirk a smile, and he responded with a small one of his own.

"Tell you what," he went on. "You can make it up to me by fixing all the holes that thing put in my ship before I get out of the med bay."

Soji smiled wider. "I'll get right on that. Captain."


End file.
